This is
great news! More than $37k has been raised in just 11 hours to support a Syrian
refugee pictured selling pens in Beirut while carrying his sleeping daughter.In
the heartbreaking images, the man offers out a handful of biros, clutching a
plastic bag of more pens while his little daughter sleeps wrapped over his
shoulder.
The
photos of the father and child went viral after they were posted two days ago
on Twitter by activist Gissur Simonarson.He was then inundated with requests to
help the man and so Gissur, based in Norway, announced he was going to try to
find him.
He launched a Twitter account named #BuyPens and within 30 minutes, someone on Twitter contacted Gissur saying he saw the man every day around his house.
Incredibly, twenty-four hours later the man and his daughter were identified as single dad-of-two Abdul and his daughter Reem, four and a half.
Gissi
launched a crowdfunding page to raise money to help Abdul start a new life for
his family.Amazingly, in the first 30 minutes Gissur's goal of $5,000 was
raised.
He
wrote: "We have reached my goal of $5,000 in the first 30 min.
"This
was never meant as a cap, just something to start with.
"Let's
make sure that Abdul and Reem can really start a great new life.
"All
extra donations will of course go directly to them as well."
The
fundraising total has reached more than $37,859 in 11 hours and continues to go
up
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